EPIC -- Intel's uncompromising foe
It was EPIC who had raised the alarm over the chip maker's plans to include electronic serial numbers in their upcoming Pentium III processor. It was EPIC who called for an unprecedented boycott against the PC giant, and who garnered national media exposure for the subversive parody motto: "Big Brother Inside."
When the Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) managers arrived, they found a modest office space crowded with law books, a few Macintosh computers, subversive pro-privacy posters and three men who would not compromise. "They have a stronger position than the other groups we talked to," concluded Intel manager Stephen Ellis, who attended Thursday's meeting. "Their position was very clear: They do not like the feature."
Principle over pragmatism
Since its founding in 1994, EPIC has gained a reputation with friends and foes alike for choosing principle over pragmatism every time. When the Electronic Frontier Foundation signed off on an the FBI's "Digital Telephony" wiretap proposal, EPIC maintained that -- even in a negotiated, weakened form -- the plan would still unreasonably broaden the Bureau's wiretapping authority. While other groups embraced voluntary key escrow as a lesser evil to the Clinton Administration's controversial Clipper Chip, EPIC held fast that any backdoor into encryption systems was a threat to individual privacy. Period.
Critics contend that EPIC's idealism doesn't work in the real world of Washington politics, where deal making is the proven path to effectiveness. EPIC Director Marc Rotenberg doesn't see it that way.
"It's not enough to be concerned and worried," Rotenberg said. "If there's a problem, it needs to be fixed."
Rotenberg, in a dark suit and power-tie befitting his passionate intensity, is a blur of activity in the office. In a rare moment between taking phone calls, faxing paperwork and banging out text on his keyboard, he offers that history has proven the organization right. "A lot of people who have criticized us in the past for taking extreme positions, have eventually come around to our position. I think that's significant."
The group -- operating on foundation grants and private contributions -- now runs on a $250,000 per year budget. They helped defeat the Communications Decency Act in the Supreme Court, and general counsel David Sobel is co-counsel in the ACLU's constitutional challenge to the Child Online Protection Act.
With the Intel blockade, the organization has received international exposure, and been flooded with phone calls and letters -- mostly supportive. When will the blockade end? EPIC Policy Director David Banisar -- an archetypal activist who forgoes suit and tie in favor of khakis, sneakers and a T-shirt marked "private" -- responds in true EPIC style: "The boycott will end when Intel realizes they have a public relations disaster on their hands, and they decide to cut their losses."
EPIC's influence is growing, but the three men who had the audacity to call for a boycott of the largest computer-chip maker in the world, say they aren't letting their it go to their heads
"We don't go after big companies just for the sake of it, says Rotenburg. "We've already taken on the FBI, NSA, AOL and the White House, but it's always been about protecting privacy rights for the users."
"If Intel fixes this, we'll say thank you and turn our attention elsewhere."